NASA unveils Webb Telescope’s first images, Mid-America hosts live feed
The largest space telescope ever built, the James Webb Telescope, was launched in December 2021 and began transmitting some of the first images back to Earth Tuesday.
Mid-America Science Museum virtually hosted NASA’s live broadcast revealing the images, aiming to become a “true leader in astronomical learning,” Casey Wylie, the museum’s director of education, said.
“It’s there to see further than the Hubble Telescope ever could because it has an infrared camera and a sunshield to block out the sun,” Anna Crane, one of the museum’s educators, said. “The goal, ultimately, is to hopefully see all the way to the Big Bang.”
Combining the sensitivity and resolution of the Hubble Telescope with the infrared capabilities of the Spitzer Telescope will allow the Webb Telescope to provide a more accurate and detailed view of space, according to MASM’s website.
“Orbiting the sun approximately one million miles from
Earth, scientists are hopeful that images from the Webb Telescope will reveal the mysteries of over 13.5 billion years of cosmic history and potentially allow humans to discover the first galaxies in the universe,” it says.
“It’s mostly focusing on infrared, which is the end of the light spectrum that we can’t see, but is also the light spectrum that stars give off closer to the end of their dying cycle,” Wylie said. “Which means that we’ll be able to see things that are much, much, much older.”
What makes Webb’s images so sharp, Wylie said, is its 18 mirrors. Before Webb was launched, the telescope’s mirrors were folded inside of the rocket. The launch vehicle and the telescope then separated after the launch, the sunshield deployed and the mirrors were deployed.
On Monday, President Joe Biden revealed the Webb Telescope’s first image, Deep Field: SMACS 0723, which showcases thousands of galaxies. NASA revealed four more images on Tuesday, including images showcasing the atmospheric composition of a distant planet, the death of a star, never-before-seen details of Stephan’s Quintet, a grouping of five galaxies, as well as a star-forming region, NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula.
“Keep in mind that every single colorful dot you’re seeing isn’t a star,” Wylie said about the Webb Telescope’s first image. “It’s a galaxy. We’re seeing galaxies that are billions of light years away and billions of years old that we didn’t know existed before.”
Although the Hubble Telescope was able to analyze many exoplanets, planets outside our solar system that orbit a star, “Webb’s immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterize potentially habitable planets beyond Earth,” NASA’s website says.
The Hubble Telescope captured the first clear detection of water in 2013, after being launched in 1990. Webb, however, was able to capture the signature of water in less than one year.
The museum recently upgraded a digital dome system, which has a full 180-degree view. It is the most “state of the
art” digital dome system in the state, Wylie said.
“It’ll allow us to see the new images in really amazing ways,” Crane said. “Plus, the things that are happening with this telescope are just so amazing, we wanted to be a part of it.”
“Our museum has always been special because we focus more on the physical sciences than perhaps the natural sciences, like the nature centers or animal sciences like the zoos,” Wylie said. “We really want to take that a step further. It’s time for Mid-America Science Museum to expand even more, and space is a great place to do that.”